1.4 - Therapy TECHNIQUES

Time limits

____ ____ must be set with clients.

30 mins

Sessions with children

• usually last for ______

45 to 50 mins

Adults:

Homework assignments

are usually made near the end of the therapy session

• Offering Encouragement

• “The Question”

• Asking “As If”

• Push-Button

• Catching Oneself

• Pleasing Someone

• Socratic Questioning

• Task Setting

• Creating Images

• Brainstorming

• Spitting in Soup

• Paradoxical Intention

Therapy TECHNIQUES:

(12)

OTAP CPST CBSP

Offering Encouragement

Help clients recognize their strengths, effort, and ability to improve.

Offering Encouragement

Example: “You answered even though you were nervous. That shows courage.”

“The Question”

Ask how life would be different without the problem,

• helping explore its purpose and the client’s goals.

“The Question”

Example: “If your fear of reciting disappeared, what would you do differently?”
Clue: What would change?

Asking “As If”

Practice behaving as though you already possess a desired quality.

Asking “As If”

Example: Ana feels shy but introduces herself as a confident person would.
Clue: Practice being the person you want to become.

Push-Button

Switch between pleasant, unpleasant, then pleasant mental images

to notice how thoughts influence feelings.

Push-Button

Example: Ana recalls a success, a disappointment, then the success again, noticing emotional changes.
Clue: Change the image; notice the feeling.

Catching Oneself

Notice an unhelpful pattern as it happens

and choose a different response.

Catching Oneself

Example: Ben notices he is about to shout, pauses, and speaks calmly.
Clue: Notice → pause → choose.

Pleasing Someone

Practice kindness and contribution to strengthen social interest and connection.

Pleasing Someone

Example: Ana helps a classmate understand a lesson because she wants to contribute.
Clue: Do something thoughtful for another person.

Socratic Questioning

Use thoughtful questions

to help clients examine their beliefs and reach their own understanding.

• Leading an individual to insight through a series of questions

• Makes the client responsible for his or her own conclusions

Socratic Questioning

Example: Ben says, “One failure means I’m incapable.” The therapist asks, “What experiences suggest otherwise?”
Clue: Question the belief.

Task Setting

-Therapists give homework assignments

to give clients practice with a behavior

-Agree on small, achievable actions the client can practice between sessions.

Task Setting

Example: Ana and her therapist agree that she will greet one classmate each school day.
Clue: Small steps through homework.

Creating Images

•Used to describe clients with a single phrase.

•Adlerian use images to describe clients

Creating Images

Use a vivid, often humorous mental picture to reveal an unhelpful pattern or unrealistic goal.

Creating Images

Example: Ana pictures herself juggling twenty balls

to recognize her expectation that she must handle everyone’s problems.

Clue: Picture the pattern.

Brainstorming

Generate many possible solutions

without judging them immediately, then consider which could work.

Brainstorming

Example: To make friends, Ana lists joining a club, volunteering, and greeting classmates before choosing an option.
Clue: Ideas first; evaluate afterward.

Spitting in Soup

Gently expose the hidden payoff of an unhelpful behavior,

making that behavior less appealing.

• When therapists reveal the hidden purpose of a client’s symptom or behavior, they deprive him or her of the secondary gains that the symptoms provide

Spitting in Soup

Example: Ben complains until someone else does his chores. The therapist helps him realize: “My complaining gets me out of doing the work.”

Clue: Reveal the hidden benefit of the habit.

Paradoxical Intention

Deliberately produce or exaggerate a symptom

in an agreed therapeutic exercise to interrupt the fearful struggle with it.

Paradoxical Intention

Example: During role-play, the therapist invites Ana to deliberately use a shaky voice instead of struggling to hide it.
Clue: Intentionally exaggerate the feared response.